The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for automated article handling, and more particularly concerns methods and apparatus for automatically de-bagging container ends.
Two-piece and three-piece cans are widely used for packaging beverages, foods, petroleum, and a great number of other products. In the manufacture of these containers, it is common to provide a can fabricating or closing machine with a supply of can bodies, and with a supply of separate, pre-formed can ends. The ends are usually provided to the machinery in elongated stacks, and the stacks are delivered to the canning or processing plant in elongated kraft paper bags.
The can fabrication or closure activity occurs at a high rate of speed, and so a large number of can ends are commonly used in a short time. Accordingly, an effectively endless supply of can ends must be provided to the fabricating or closing machinery by an infeed unit, or the like. Can end supply or infeed units which have met with wide commercial acceptance are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,741, and employ a number of individual pockets for receiving and storing a stack of ends preparatory to delivery to the fabricating machinery.
Before the stacks of can ends are supplied to the fabricating machinery, the bags must be removed from the stacks. The removal of these bags has been accomplished by hand, in that a bag is placed in the pocket of the infeed unit and the bag is then manually stripped from the stack of ends. A previous mechanism for automatically de-bagging stacks of can ends is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,946 to McCullough et al., but this device has not met with extensive acceptance.